Health analyst Samuel Arthur has raised concerns over systemic challenges in Ghana’s healthcare system, citing cases where pregnant women are asked to travel to other facilities for scans despite seeking care at hospitals with sonography departments.
Speaking to Isaac Addae on Morning Starr, Samuel Arthur said clinicians sometimes resort to referring patients elsewhere because they are not confident in the results produced by equipment available at the facility.
He gave the example of pregnant women who may visit a facility with a sonography department but are asked to travel to another facility to undergo a scan.
“There are some that it is systemic. We are talking about equipment. Now, people go to facilities and there’s a sonography department, where they could do scan. And a pregnant woman who already has come to the facility and is tired, you are told to go to another facility, which is far off the facility you are going to seek care. To go and do your scan there, because that is where the clinicians feel they can get the right results,” he said.
According to him, the situation raises questions about why concerns over the performance of such equipment are not properly addressed.
“So we have a hospital that has a machine that is not delivering results that doctors are not comfortable with. So if the doctors are not comfortable with the results that the sonography machine is delivering in the public facility, what stops them from reporting it?” he asked.
He further suggested that healthcare workers may face challenges when they attempt to raise concerns within the system.
“But you have me know, when you try to raise your head, they will cut you off or even transfer to a different place,” he said.
Samuel Arthur said medical negligence cannot always be viewed solely from the actions of individual clinicians, stressing that there are also systemic issues that need to be considered.
“ there are several issues, and the real dynamics, you cannot deal,” he said.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh/Pamela Quayeson
